Letters to the Editor

Mail Theft

We have a problem with thieves in LB stealing checks from our corner mailboxes. A second problem is the inability or seemingly lack of interest by the Long Beach Post Office in taking an interest in solving the problem.

Yesterday I went to our corner mailbox and was about to mail a letter with a check. The mail slot was covered with a sticky substance. If you toss a letter into the slot without feeling inside first, the letter will stick and not drop. This enables the thief to retrieve the letter. He will then remove the check, “wash” the recipient’s name with acetone and put in his own. This has been happening for years at our mailbox at Karen and Mezzanine.

I know neighbors losing large amounts of money. Complaining to the Post Office gets you nowhere. They blatantly exhibit rude behavior and will tell you they will do nothing. My suggestion is to replace these old boxes or get rid of them totally and stop deceiving the public.

Bob Potier

LBPD Militarization

In today’s world of uncertainty, our police should have the militarized capability and ability to deal with unforeseen circumstances.

Criminals already have militarized weapons, so now we are going advocate taking militarized weapons and tools away from our police? Yet its okay for the crooks to have these types of weapons? How do expect our police to effectively deal with a major circumstance of violence or civil unrest?

If our police are not prepared and able to bring a major situation involving violent crazy criminals and there is a loss of innocent lives, the complaint then will be that the loss of lives could have been saved had the police been better able and equipped.

Mark Alonzo

Housing Density

Long Beach is now on a quest to take away neighborhoods and make projects. They want to put everyone in nice little cubicles similar to the ones so many people work in except for the whole family and many others in the same space that used to be our homes. It’s the Great Society all over again except it’s for everyone and not just black neighborhoods this time.

Don’t believe it? It’s the condensing of the population into areas that are more conducive to larger numbers being able to access public transit and so forth. Breaking up of homes to make more families possible in units on the same property that used to house one home. Is this what the people of Long Beach want? No! And the political and business people who run this city don’t care.

As a city we need to stand up against this tyranny and say enough is enough. You can’t legislate away our homes and our major investment in our lives for your personal gain and ideology. This has got to stop. Our family’s very future ride on this.

Vance Frederick